Tales of the Last Train

Siren perked up a little at the offer. "Really? Well. Who am I to refuse a free drink, huh? I think that's pretty good compensation for what you did." she sneered, her hands on her hips and a broad grin across her face, which faltered only for a moment. "....a squirrel is offering to buy me a drink to replace the one I lost off the back of the train car. Can't exactly say this is a situation I've ever been in before."

Deciding to not answer miss two since miss one did well enough, the Artist continued into the next car. "...Oh, the dining car was this close? I thought it was further down. Well, that's certainly convenient." He walked further inside and looked around. "Hm... This looks like a good table," he noted, sitting at one of the table-clothed ones with four seats, against a window showing the landscape passing by and facing in the same direction as the train's movement.

Inside the dining car, there sat a bandaged female dog sitting at a table with what appeared to be a little human girl.
There were both dining on some food that ( to be honest) looked very red, perhaps a little *too* red for comfort.
But judging by their reactions to it, it was in fact delicious.

" Mmmm~ the chef has really outdone himself this time" the dog woman said with a happy sigh.
" This red meat is delicious"

" Want more!" The little girl sitting next to the dog exclaimed, waving her chubby little arms about.

" Now, now Iggy, you shouldn't eat too much; it could give you a tummy ache" the dog said as she then looked up, something catching out the corner of her eye.
" Oh hello there!" she called out to the newcomers.
" Do take a seat, it's nice to see more people here!"

Siren sniffed the air, making a slightly irked face when she caught a whiff of the scent of the meat.

"...what is UP with that meat? Something seems kinda off with it. I've never seen meat that red before, and it's got a strange smell..." she muttered, folding her arms as she usually did. "If this is like....Sweeney Todd on a train? I am so out of here."

"Huh?" Since the Artist was facing away, he turned in his seat to see the dog sitting there. "Oh sorry miss, I didn't see you there." As an aside, he added, "Man, I'm not seeing a lot of people tonight..."

Mama Dog looked somewhat puzzled by Siren's reaction to the meat, she tilted her head to the side slightly.
" Oh? as far as I know, this is the chef's daily special...I think he called it 'Mystery Red Meat' and with good reason, I can't even decipher what kind of meat this is"

Looking over to the Artist, Mama Dog gave a nod of hello to him.
" I have to admit, you three are the first me and Iggy have seen in quite a while; we had some guests aboard last week, although they mysteriously disappeared"

" Uncle Gregory said that they'd reached their destination" The little girl piped up.
" Mr. Chef also got more food last week, he said that it was a rare deli...delic...erm..." she stumbled on her words slightly, looking slightly unsure how to pronounce the word she was looking for.

" Delicacies" Mama Dog answered for the little girl.
" And as rare as it is, you should try some~ the Chef is very partial to his cooking"

The Artist chuckled. "He does what he must, doesn't he? Just as we all do. Shame I won't be able to sample it; I require only a drink to help me relax after a particularly stressful painting session." From the look on his face, however, one might be able to tell he wasn't all that fond of the red meat.

He pulled his glance away to look at Siren. "Um, who's Sweeney Todd?"

Siren scoffed. "Are you kidding me? Only one of the greatest stage musicals of all time! Pff, some artist you are."

When she heard Mama Dog's explanation of the meat, she made another disgusted face. "....mystery? Yeah, that bodes REAL well, lemme tell you."

He recoiled a little, feeling slightly hurt by her biting comment. "I-I'm more of a painter than a... music... guy..." he said feebly in his defense.

At around that time, the door opposite the one the three newcomers came in opened and in walked in a small figure. What appeared to be a male who only came up to Heather's waist, but it wasn't easy to tell because he was wearing a black hat and his face was completely obscured by a black veil; the only part visible was a pair of glowing red eyes. He was dressed a black cloak and shoes and carrying a little waiter's pad and pen.

"Ah, the waiter, right...?" the Artist mentioned offhandedly.

The Prompter started walking slowly up the car towards the still-standing humans.

"About time! My god, this dining car is incredibly understaffed and poorly run if it takes that long for someone to come take our order!" Siren snapped, taking a seat by plunking herself down in one of the designated seats.

(Wait, I'm confused; is Siren sitting at the same table as Artist and Heather?)

The Prompter went straight for the Artist's and Heather's table, where it turned it's head towards the Artist first.

"I'll have a mug of steaming hot chocolate," he told the figure before turning back to his dining companion. "Perfect thing to warm the soul on a cold night like this, don't cha think?"

The Prompter, meanwhile, had diverted his gaze to his notebook to jot down the order before turning to Heather.

(I'm just gonna assume she's at a different table. I wouldn't necessarily find it surprising so far either.)

The Prompter gave its head a little shake as it again looked to the notebook and jotted down the order.

As it went to attend to Siren, the Artist listened to his companion's whispers. "I'm not sure, really," he whispered back. "No one really pays them too much mind; they just... help out around here."

Mama Dog just sat enjoying the rest of her meal, since she was a dog, she didn't mind what kind of meat she was eating as long as it was...well...meat; although she then jerked her head up as if suddenly remembering something and whipped a pocket-watch out of one of the back pockets of her dress.

Opening it up, she then checked the time, it appeared to be approaching midnight; the witching hour as it was called.
" Hmmm...is it coming up for the rush hour already?" she muttered to herself before glancing out the window.
She had been on the train long enough to learn the timetables that this old train followed...it was always very precise, just like the old mouse it belonged to.

Looking to Siren, Heather and the Artist, Mama Dog spoke up.
" It looks like you three got to your tables just in time, we'll be going into the rush hour very shortly, some more passengers should be arriving soon"

Iggy looked up at Mama Dog for a split second before smiling and pressing her face up against the window.
" Oooooh! I like this part, keep watching for the pretty lights~!"

"Finally!" Siren sighed, looking in the direction of the Prompter. "Do you know how long we've been waiting?!"

She looked at the menu, skimming it quickly before finding something she liked. Folding the menu back up, she spoke in her usual impatient and entitled tone.

"....in any case, I'll have the roast turkey dinner and a Tequila Sunrise. And hurry it up, will you? I'm starving."

(I'll leave the details of the "rush hour" to you, Becca. Although if I recall the opening lines of the series correctly, I think I may know what it is...)

The Prompter jotted down the last orders before making its way back to the kitchen.

"'Rush hour'...?" the Artist thought aloud. Noticing the little girl was looking up against the window, he turned his attention to his own window, looking out at the dark scrubland landscape. He emitted a deep sigh.

(( Okie dokie, I just hope that I write it out right like I pictured in my mind since it's around 12: 37 am here and my eyes are stinging like crazy.
I just hope you guys don't mind me moving things along just a little bit ^^; ))

For a few seconds, the barren landscape outside the train was still; nothing moved, nothing could be heard other than the sound of the train as it puffed out smoke.
There wasn't really much to see, so it was a wonder why Mama Dog and Iggy were so intent on looking out the windows.

All of a sudden, a shrill whistle echoed through the air; almost like someone was signalling for something to come along.
Less than a few seconds passed and it seemed that something was finally happening out there.

Trees began to sway to and fro, as if waving on something's approach and faint mysterious lights began to appear over the horizon.
They appeared to drift closer to the train and the closer they got, the brighter they became.

They appeared to be floating lights, all different colours, going at different speeds.
Some hurried along as if to say " I'm late! I'm late!" while others floated along slowly as if they were in a much calmer frame of mind.

The lights floated past the windows of the train, their appearance almost seeming like a miniture meteor shower to whoever was watching them.

" They're so pretty!" Iggy exclaimed, jumping up and down on her chair; her eyes wide with awe, even though she'd most likely seen the lights before, she obviously enjoyed their presence.
" Do you think if I was to catch one, they'd grant wishes?"

Mama Dog just laughed softly in response to that and gave a small shake of her head.
" Don't be silly Iggy, you wouldn't be able to catch one of those; they'd slip right past your fingers, just like fishes"

The young woman dog glanced out the window to watch the show of passing lights.
" This is the rush hour" she explained to the newcomers.
" Those souls are on their way to somewhere that will allow them to leave all their worries behind them...of course they need to take the train before they can do that"

She gave a slight sad smile as her mind briefly thought about something before she focused on the present again.
" It's kind of like what I'm doing, so I can understand their reasons for coming here; that's what everyone on this train is doing"

(Well, not quite what I was expecting. But then again, that's what makes it interesting.

For fourth-wall flavor, the Chef's voice is presented in the free Ravenscroft font, available here. Sadly, my initial choice, "Creepy," is not free. I intend only to use it for special circumstances for when the Chef, or others, get sufficiently scary.)

The Artist was barely listening, captivated by the myriad of lights streaking by outside. "Whoa..." he said with wonderment, rather quietly but still audible. "This sight... It's... beautiful..."

His demeanor then took a quick 180 as he suddenly gave a shout of anger and slammed his fist against the sturdy glass.

"It's beautiful and I can't capture it!" He leaned his head against the window, eyes closed, and started silently sobbing.

It was about then there was the sound of falling and clattering pots and pans from the kitchen. This was followed by a furious yell of a less-than-friendly voice. "ONLY A CUP OF WATER?!"

Siren watched the lights go by, transfixed on their pale glow.

"Ooooh.....sparkly. I want one!" she murmured. But her entrancement was soon interrupted by the shout from the kitchen. She paused for a moment, staring at the door to the kitchen, then turning to look at Heather. "...he mad."

Mama Dog nodded to Heather, confirming the teenagers fears.
Although the young dog woman then tilted her head to the side slightly in a questioning manner, she'd never seen someone react badly to hearing about the souls before.
" Are you alright, dear? you seem to be a little bit nervous"

All of a sudden, the Artist's outburst caused Mama Dog to jump slightly.
" I-it happens every midnight, sir; you could always capture the next one" she stuttered slightly.

Shortly after that, there was then the loud shout from the kitchen.
" Oh dear..." she mumbled, gulping nervously.
" The chef doesn't sound too pleased..."

The Artist had stopped crying and looked up at the cacophony from the kitchen and took a few moments to get over the loud shouts of the angry chef before responding. "I-It's not like that... I've already tried painting a landscape on a moving train and failed. Repeatedly. And my memory's too frazzled to paint it from it; I'll never be able to remember a satisfactory amount of detail..."

A little while later, the Prompter emerged from the kitchen carrying a mug of steaming hot chocolate. He walked over to Heather and the Artist's table and deposited the mug on the Artist's side of the table. The mug was mostly white, but with a black design on opposite sides: a mouse-eared skull.

"Ah, couldn't have arrived at a better time," the Artist commented as the Prompter hurried back to the kitchen. He picked up the mug and gave it a sip. "Ahhh..." he visibly relaxed. "That hits the spot. Nothing better for when you just need to forget your troubles."

Heather still stood even after the prompter left. Her eyes stayed on the door he left to, now just wondering what that outburst was even for.
"Should I maybe..." Run? She finished in her thoughts. She shook her head, trying to clear her earlier fright from the yells. She never did like when people yelled. It always got her way too tense.

She made a mental note to make sure she'd never have to run into that chef...



Well, if nothing was happening from that, she had to get back on track to the more pressing matters.

She put her attention back on Mama Dog, her already shot nerves making her stomach turn in knots. She ran the dog's words over and over again in her head, making her become... scared. "Wait, so..." She took a forced breath, trying to calm herself down and get back on conversation. Maybe she was just over thinking. Maybe she was just being paranoid. But looking at these... creatures. This place...

"That's what everyone on this train is doing."

That rang most clearly in her mind.

"So... So you were saying... Are you saying only [i]souls[/i] get on this train..?" She half pointed at Mama Dog. "B-But..." She glanced at all of them. That couldn't be possible. She could see them. All of them! They were all physical, she knew that for sure! "That can't be possible..." She whispered to herself, fear beginning to cling to her heart as she refused to believe such a claim.